Facebook plans to allow advertising in Messenger

According to TechCrunch a leaked document Facebook sent to some of its biggest advertisers reveals that Facebook will launch ads within their Messenger app in Q2 2016.

Rather than an open slather approach allowing an advertiser to push content based on segments and demographics, Facebook will be taking a cautious approach. It seems that advertisers will only be able to target those people that have already engaged with them using the Messenger app and initiated a message thread.

Messenger is one of Facebook’s leading products with over 800 million users. While not confirming the plan, the move may have been indicated by VP of Messaging Products David Marcus on Jan the 7th. Marcus then gave some insights into the success of the product over 2015 and their plans for 2016: “At Messenger we’re thinking about how we can help you interact with businesses or services to buy items (and then buy more again), order rides, purchase airline tickets, and talk to customer service in truly frictionless and delightful ways.”

Making it easier for consumers to interact directly with businesses seems to be flavour of the month. Twitter also announced a feature that will allow businesses to add a deep link to Tweets that automatically displays a call to action button, allowing the customer to send the business a direct message.

Why should you care?

Facebook wants to encourage businesses to directly engage with users through Messenger. Naturally, Facebook will consider any opportunities to derive additional ad revenue in the process. Twitter has more desperate need to earn revenue, and will be doing what it can to monetise any additional features.

If you’re considering social media advertising but you’re not sure where to start, give us a call.